Finishing Camp
Our first day in Okinawa. Unlike Korea, which was just starting to turn cold, people walked around in short sleeves under a warm sun — and that part, I liked. But…
"Rain on day one. You've got to be kidding me…"
Ko Mandeok, standing beside me, heaved one heavy sigh after another.
They'd come here last year too, and the rain had been so relentless they'd been forced to train almost entirely indoors. He'd been hoping this year would be different — and yet, from the moment we arrived, the rain was pouring down in sheets.
The original plan had been to stop by the training ground we'd be using for the next month before heading to the lodging, but with the weather like this, every plan got scrapped. The bus we were on drove straight to the dorms.
"Ahhh~ Finally I get a room with a junior. Heh heh heh."
Mandeok, who would be sharing a room with me for the next month, tossed his bags down any which way, flopped onto the bed, and grinned with pure satisfaction.
"Who'd you room with before?"
"Me? Ha… Sangjun hyung-nim."
"Ah…"
Of all people, the absolute senior-most veteran…
"But don't they usually put position players with position players and pitchers with pitchers, even if the exact roles don't match?"
"Huh? Do they? You guys did that? No idea. I roomed with Sangjun hyung every single year."
"Ah…"
"…Do you have to look at me like I'm that pathetic? Living with him was actually pretty comfortable. He never made me do laundry or any of that stuff the other hyungs would."
"Then it must've been fine."
"Except he's insanely neat. Like, too neat."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"The problem is I had to keep up with that neatness. Would you just sit there and watch while the oldest hyung-nim in the room is sweeping and wiping everything down because he says it's dirty?"
"Yeah, okay, that tracks."
"…So every day we just cleaned. Honestly, it was harder than training."
"…Are you going to do that this year too?"
"Are you crazy? If anyone's cleaning, it's you. I'm not lifting a finger."
"Hmm… Perfect. I'm not exactly on speaking terms with neatness either. We'll just live however."
"……Fine by me."
So far, so good.
After dinner, we were on our way back to the lodging.
"Oh, right. I heard a new coach came in. You hear about that?"
"No? Is there even a coaching spot that needed filling? What side is he on?"
"Battery coach, I think?"
Our team's battery coach was a guy named Myeong Doyeong — someone who'd been a real force back when he was a player.
"Then what about Coach Myeong?"
"That's what I don't know either. It's not like Coach Myeong quit or got sent down to the Second Team. He came here with us too."
"Exactly. So what's going on?"
"No clue. Supposedly we'll see him tomorrow. We'll find out then."
The next day, we got to meet the new coach.
And the moment I saw him, I couldn't help but break into a huge smile.
"This is our new coach, Yang Taesung. Starting today, he'll be working with the pitchers and catchers. Take note."
Manager Park's brief introduction, followed by Taesung hyung's short greeting, and then everyone headed back to their places.
Everyone except me.
"How did this happen?"
"I figured it was about time I stopped being a bullpen catcher, right?"
After leaving the Dragons, he'd said he'd get in touch soon — and then radio silence. I'd messaged him every now and then, and every time he'd just reply that he'd contact me soon. And now here he was, standing right in front of me.
"That's not what I mean. What were you even doing that you barely answered your phone… And if you were coming to our team, you could've at least said something. You scared me."
"That's why I didn't tell you ahead of time. Spoilers kill the fun. Heh heh."
"Ha… Seriously."
"So? You don't like it?"
"……How could I not? I love it. I'm so happy I could die."
"Then we're good."
Somehow, the man seemed to have gotten a little more sly.
"So hyung… wait, no — Coach now. What exactly is your assignment, Coach?"
"Me? There's only one thing I know how to do, right?"
"Battery work?"
"Yep."
"Then where's the previous coach transferring to?"
"Huh? He's not transferring."
"…Then what? Two battery coaches?"
"Yep. But Coach Myeong will probably keep working with the existing players. I'll mostly handle the rookies and backups. Plus you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You and that friend over there. Honestly, they brought me in because of the two of you."
Taesung hyung's hand pointed toward Ko Mandeok, who was chatting with the other players.
But the more I listened, the weirder it sounded.
"Hold on. If you're covering Mandeok hyung plus all the rookies and backups… that basically means you're handling every catcher on the roster."
How many catchers did we even have? And the only starting catcher was Ko Mandeok. If Taesung hyung was taking the rookies, the backups, and Mandeok, that was just the entire catching corps.
"No, no. I told you. They brought me in because of you and Ko Mandeok."
"Yes."
"Coach Myeong will handle the basics. I'm only going to work on one specific thing."
"…Which is?"
"How to catch the ball?"
"……What on earth does that even…"
I had no idea what he was talking about. I wanted to dig deeper, but a call went out gathering the players, and that was the end of it.
Couldn't be late on the first day of camp training.
"Run!"
"You're too slow! Faster!"
Day one of training was pure, unrelenting physical conditioning. Position didn't matter — every single person ran, and ran, and threw their bodies into it without a single exception.
I'd been wrong. Thinking a finishing camp would be relatively easier than spring camp had been a massive mistake. From day one, our team's training ground us down until we were on the absolute brink of collapse.
Mandeok had actually given me a quiet heads-up. Said I needed to steel myself. That it would be on a completely different level from anything we'd done during the season. The veterans who'd already survived Manager Park's spring camp the year before had probably expected something like this.
But not this bad. Who could have guessed they'd grind us this hard from the very first day?
"Hah… hah… Ahh, damn… H-how much longer… hauu…"
"Hoo… hoo… Looks like it's wrapping up, though?"
Lee Yong-hun, training beside me, answered between ragged breaths.
So he'd been through this before?
He was struggling too — but he still looked better off than I did. I felt like if I really put my mind to it, I could throw up right then and there.
Tweet!
"That's it! Good work!"
Just as Yong-hun had said, the head coach called an end to training a short while later. And without exception, every last one of us collapsed right there on the ground.
"Shit! This goddamn… Haa… hoo… If it was gonna rain, it should've rained today. Damn it…"
Choi Geunho's grumbling drifted over from behind me. I agreed with every word. If it had just rained, they never would have pushed us to the point of nearly puking on the field.
"Listen up like that. Starting today, we don't touch a baseball for a full week. The next seven days are physical training, just like today — so don't do anything stupid."
"……"
"That means don't go out drinking and wandering around just because practice is over. Actually, go ahead and drink if you want. You can… but you already know better than anyone what that'll look like at training the next day, right?"
"……"
"Anyone who can't keep up doesn't get spring camp either. Think carefully. Got it?"
The head coach finished, flashed a sly grin, turned on his heel, and walked off the field.
I guarantee you — not a single person there was going to shrug and say "whatever happens, happens" and go drinking. None of the seniors were that far gone… and with training like this waiting the next day? Plus a spring camp penalty on top of it?
No one with a working brain would pull that kind of stunt.
Just as they'd said on day one, we went a full week without so much as touching a baseball, grinding through nothing but physical training day after day. There was one rest day in the middle, but after three days of being worked like animals, a single day off wasn't going to put anyone back together.
Rest one day, then three more. By the final day of that first week of finishing camp, I was starting to wonder if our bodies might actually break down instead.
And yet we finished without a single person dropping out.
"People say humans are adaptable animals, right? So why, after doing the exact same thing for a whole week, am I still not adapted?"
"…What kind of lunatic came up with that saying?"
"Right? It's not just me, is it?"
"Hooah… Still, it's over. Holy crap…"
That week of training had been something else. Getting crushed together like that had somehow forged a camaraderie that hadn't existed before. Players I'd felt awkward around before the camp — I was genuinely close with them now.
Before coming here, the only person I could talk to comfortably had been Ko Mandeok. Now I was tight with the whole pitching staff and the hitters alike.
"Good work this week. Everyone head in and rest up. Tomorrow and the day after are two full days off. Light drinking is allowed tomorrow, so hang on just one more day."
"Yes, sir!"
Color returned to a few faces. At the words "drinking allowed," all the suffering of the past week seemed to vanish from their expressions.
"You planning to drink too?"
As things were wrapping up and everyone started heading in to shower, Jo Sangjun drifted over and asked me quietly.
"Huh? Uh…"
Honestly, his question irked me a little. Was he trying to drag me along to drink tomorrow? That would be a bit of a problem. Even if I said I didn't feel like drinking, if the teammates I'd only just gotten close with insisted I come, it'd be hard to refuse. And once I went, I'd end up having a glass whether I wanted to or not.
"W-what about you, hyung-nim?"
"Me? Not really."
"…What?"
"Why? What are you going to do?"
"I-I'm not really… I'm exhausted, so why bother…"
"Good. Smart thinking."
He gave a small, satisfied smile at my answer and simply walked off.
"What was that?"
At least he wasn't forcing me into a drinking session, which was a relief…
Was he just checking? But why only me all of a sudden…
I couldn't figure out what the question had been for.
"This team really doesn't have a single person who asks a proper question and gives a proper answer."
I found out why Jo Sangjun had asked the next day.